Power System Security

Outages can cause blackouts

© Bruce F. Wollenberg, University of Minnesota 2

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Kinds of Outages
• Scheduled Outages
– Operators take component out for maintenance or  
repair
• Forced Outages
– Outage is not scheduled and not done by an  
operator
– Outage is due to random event such as weather,  
internal breakdown etc.
• Both can cause trouble for a power system

System Security

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 Security Preparedness

NERC (n‐1) rule
No generation outage will result in so large a
frequency drop that other generators will be
forced off line.

No single transmission or generation outage

will result in other components experiencing
such a large flow or voltage change that new
limit violations occur.

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System Security

System Security

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System Security

System Security

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Security States

Security States

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 Security States

Generation Outages
• Effect on other generators
– Power imbalance between load and generation
– Drop in frequency
– If insufficient spinning reserve available other  
generators can go out due to drop in frequency
• Changes in line flows as generation is shifted  
to other generators
– Lines can be overloaded or bus voltages drop due  
to flow changes and loss of generator var support

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Transmission outages
• A line outage means flows shift to remaining  
lines
– Remaining lines can overload
– Reactive losses increase on the remaining  
transmission lines
– Bus voltages may drop below acceptable limits

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Factors Affecting Security

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Factors Affecting Security

Factors Affecting Security

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Contingency Analysis

Contingency Analysis

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Contingency Analysis

Contingency Analysis

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Contingency Analysis

Security Analysis

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Sensitivity Factors

Sensitivity Factors

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Sensitivity Factors

Sensitivity Factors

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Sensitivity Factors

Sensitivity Factors

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Sensitivity Factors

Sensitivity Factors

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Sensitivity Factors

Sensitivity Factors

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Sensitivity Factors

Sensitivity Factors

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Sensitivity Factors

Sensitivity Factors

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 Strategies to make calculations
faster
• Study the power system with approximate but  
very fast algorithms.
• Select only the important cases for detailed  
analysis.
• Use a computer system made up of multiple  
processors or vector processors to gain speed.
• Use a combination of the above

Linear sensitivity analysis:
Power Transfer Distribution factors (PTDFs)
f When you transfer power from bus i
PTDFi, j,   to bus j. How much of the transfer MW  
P shows up on line 

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 Using PTDF factors
fˆ  f 0  PTDFi,ref , P

for  = 1...L
where

fˆ = flow on line  after the generator on bus i fails

f 0 = flow before the failure

Note that in this case we substitute “ref” for “j” to indicate that
the shift is from bus i to the reference bus.

fˆ is tested against line limit

Linear sensitivity analysis:
Line Outage Distribution Factors (LODFs)
f
LODF,k  When one line is lost, how much of
f k0 its original flow ends up on another line

where
LODF,k = line outage distribution factor when monitoring line  after an outage on
line k
f  = change in MW flow on line 
fk0= original flow on line k before it was outaged (opened)

If one knows the power on line  and line k, the flow on line  with line k out can be
determined using "LODF" factors.
See Appendix B for LODF  
derivation

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 Using LODF factors
fˆ  f0  LODF,k fk0
f 0, fk0 preoutage flows on lines  and k , respectively

fˆ = flow on line  with line k out

Run this for all line outages k and check all remaining lines 

Flowgates

f flowgate  f L1  f L2  f L3

fˆ flowgate   fˆ   ( f 0  PTDFij  Pij )

all lines  all lines 
in flowgate in flowgate

fˆ flowgate  
all lines 
fˆ  
all lines 
( f 0  LODF ,k  f k0 )
in flowgate in flowgate

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 Voltage Collapse

E
P(V , )  V sin( ) 
X
(cos( )  E V )
Q(V, )  V 
X

Voltage Collapse when a line is lost
Use of AC power flow is  
necessary to detect  
voltage collapse problems,  
in extreme cases use a  
special algorithm called  
the “continuation power  
flow”

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AC power flow contingency analysis
May take hours to  
complete study of  
entire power  
system

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Speed up  
execution by  
selecting only  
bad cases for  
full AC Power  
Flow

Problems: Short list too long, for  
Short list skips important cases

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 Contingency Selection
2nPIflow
 Pflow  
PI    max 
Use of a Performance Index (PI) which will
be large if one or more lines are over limit,
all branches  P 

and small if all lines are below their limit.

2n n n
 Pflow    Vi min  PIV  Vi 
PIV

PI    max         V max 
all branches  P  all buses  Vi  all buses  i 
 i i

Performance index to include bus voltages out of limit. Here PI is large if any  
Line is over limit and if any bus voltage is below low limit or above high limit.

The 1P1Q
selection  
method

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Contingency Selection

Contingency Selection

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Contingency Selection

Contingency Selection

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Contingency Selection

Contingency Selection

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Contingency Selection

Contingency Selection

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Contingency Selection

Contingency Selection

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Contingency Selection

Contingency Selection

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Contingency Selection

Contingency Selection

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